Thomas Steeman,^1,*,** Julie De Weirdt,^1,*** Thierry Smith,^2,**** Thierry De Putter,^3,***** Florias Mees,^3,****** Stephen Louwye<sup>1,*******

1</sup>aDepartment of Geology, Ghent University (UGent), Ghent, Belgium
²bOperational Directorate Earth and History of Life, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBI
³cGeodynamics and Mineral Resources, Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), Tervuren, Belgium

^*CONTACT Thomas Steeman thomas.steeman@ugent.be Department of Geology, Ghent University (UGent), Ghent, Belgium.
^**Thomas Steeman is a PhD student (MSc geology in 2014) at the Department of Geology of Ghent University, Belgium. His research interest are Paleogene dinoflagellate cysts and their biostratigraphical and palaeoecological application.
^***Julie De Weirdt is a PhD student and teaching assistant at Ghent University, Belgium. She received her MSc in geology in 2015 from Ghent University. Her research interests are ocean and palynomorph geochemistry and method development, stratigraphy and extinction events.
^****Thierry Smith is a senior paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels. He obtained his PhD in 1999 from University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve), Belgium. His research interests include Paleogene vertebrates, in particular the taxonomic, biostratigraphic, paleobiogeographic, and aleoenvironmental aspects.
^*****Thierry De Putter is head of the Geodynamics and Mineral Resources Unit at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium. He received his PhD in sedimentology in 1993 from Brussels University (ULB). His current research focuses on the Meso-Cenozoic history of the Congo Basin and the mineral resources it contains.
^******Florias Mees is a geologist (PhD, Ghent University), working at the Royal Museum for Central Africa since 2007. His research interests include authigenic mineral formation and sediment diagenesis. He is responsible for the collections of the RMCA Geology Department, including its paleontological collections.
^*******Stephen Louwye is a professor of palaeobotany and palynology at Ghent University, Belgium. He received his MSc in 1984 and his PhD in 1990, both from Ghent University. After several postdoctoral positions he was appointed professor in 2002. His research interests are the Neogene and Quaternary palynology of the North Atlantic and the North Sea Basin, sequence stratigraphy and palaeoclimatology.